When is the Best Time to Publish Blog Posts to Social Media?

Publishing great content to your site is only half of the battle. With over a billion active sites on the internet today, it’s easier than ever to create a blog and push content out there, but it’s also more difficult than ever to grow a loyal following and get people to your site.

One of the best ways to accomplish both of these feats is through the use of social media. With over a billion users on Facebook and another billion plus on Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest, it would be a huge mistake to not be using these traffic sources to your advantage.

There are many benefits to focusing your marketing efforts on social media, such as having instant access to more than two billion users from around the world. At the same time there are no costs associated with sending out status updates, which is perfect for bloggers and content creators.

However, something most content creators and site owners don’t know is that not all social networks perform the same way in terms of peak hours of engagement. This means you shouldn’t simply publish your latest blog post whenever you feel like. If you do, you could be missing out on thousands of potential views and clicks back to your site.

To help with this concept, today we are going to take a look at the “Is it the Right Time for My Next Social Media Post?” infographic featured below. Special thanks to InfographicDesignTeam.com for the creation of the image.

Best Times to Post to Facebook

Thursdays and Fridays, either at 1pm for the most shares, or 3pm for the most clicks. As explained, the less people want to be at work, the more they are on Facebook.

The best days of the week to share content are Thursdays and Fridays.

The best time of the day to send out a status update is around noon.

Best Times to Post to Twitter

With the half-life of a tweet being only 24 minutes long (4 times shorter than a Facebook post) your window of opportunity is tight.

The HuffingtonPost reports for maximum retweets, try to post at 5pm, 12pm, and 6pm. Additionally, 12pm and 6pm have been seen to deliver higher click-through rates. The best days to Tweet for business-to-business organizations is Monday through Friday. For business-to-consumer it’s the weekends and Wednesdays.

Hubspot reports posting between the hours of 12pm and 3pm on Mondays through Friday are ideal for engagement. It was also noted that posting on Wednesdays between 5-6pm also delivers higher results.

KissMetrics reported that weekdays at 5pm is when the highest percentage of retweets occurs. The best time of the day to tweet is at 5pm, and the best days are mid-week and weekends.

Best Times to Post to LinkedIn

If you want to get engagement on LinkedIn, post in the evening. The best times for engagement are between 7pm and 10pm.

Schedule posts to go out later in the evening, between 7pm to 10pm.

With engagement rates better in the evening, post your most engaging content there for a much greater reach, keeping less valuable content for daytime users.

Best Times to Post to Pinterest

To find success with Pinterest, you must be consistent and spread your pinning out. Varying your timing exposes you to different segments of the Pinterest population and can lead to more exposure, repins and followers.

The best day of the week to share content on Pinterest are Saturdays. The best time to send out a social update on Pinterest is from 8pm to 11pm.

The see the best results with Pinterest, accounts should be sharing between 5 and 30 pins per day. Different days of the week can perform differently depending on the niche audience you are going after (Mondays are best for good intentions in fitness, while Fridays are better for sharing funny gifs to bring comic relief to the end of a long week).

Best Times to Post to Instagram

To find the most success with Instagram, you must know who your followers are and what they are doing throughout the date. Knowing where they live, how old they are and if they are browsing your content while at work are ideal for creating the perfect Instagram content promotion campaign.

HubSpot reports anytime from Monday to Thursday is a great time to post content, as long as it’s not in between 3-4pm.

Before clicking the “Publish” button on your next blog post, be sure to consider what time of day it is and how scheduling in your content for a different time may influence engagement on social media.